“I beg to differ with you. Would you like to feel how up, I am for it?”
I was angry and I’d had enough of his games. I grabbed his crotch and began squeezing as hard as I possibly could. Soon, Maurice was begging me to let go, but I kept squeezing. His pleas became more and more desperate and high pitched. Finally I let go and he flopped down on the seat in relief. I slipped the hundred dollar bill out of his shirt pocket and handed it to the cabbie.
“Keep the change,” I told him, then I stomped away angrily.
CHAPTER 12
I paced back and forth across the floor of my condo. I was worried. Unfortunately, I didn’t doubt that Maurice had convincing footage of me with Ron. I was attracted to Ron and there were times when I felt like I didn’t do a very good job of hiding my barely concealed lust.
I finally stopped my pacing and went down to my car. I had decided I was going to Jorge’s house, surely he would be home by now. I thought it was important that I speak to Jorge before Maurice did, I had the feeling that Jorge’s house would be Maurice’s second stop of the evening.
I was feeling guilty, I had no doubt that Maurice had caught some rather “special” moments on tape, but I refused to be blackmailed. I figured the best thing to do would be go straight to Jorge and fess up. If he wanted to fire me, then so be it.
I would never succumb to Maurice’s threats, anyway. How could I be certain that he would have destroyed the tapes, even if I slept with him? I cursed myself for being so naive.
I pulled into the driveway of Jorge’s gorgeous Hollywood Hills home. The house was still aglow with dozens of lights so I assumed that someone was still awake. I marched right up to the front door and hit the buzzer. I was startled when the front door opened and it was Jorge’s partner, Jean Luc, that answered the door. I was completely astounded when I got my first look at Jean Luc. I knew that Jorge had a partner, but Jean Luc, was not what I had expected.
Jean Luc looked more like a male Italian supermodel, than the French lover of an aging Hollywood producer. Jean Luc was tan, muscular, and not a day over thirty five. I now knew why Jorge had found Ron so “yummy”. His own lover was a stunning mix of dark skin, six pack abs and rippling muscles. I could barely stop staring, Jean Luc did have a certain “drool factor” about him.
“Bonjour?” said the man, eyeing me curiously. I gave him an embarrassed smile, once again I was ogling, I couldn’t help it. I hadn’t paid much attention to things like this when I had been happily married, suddenly, here I was, thrown head first into a buffet of gorgeous men here in Hollywood. I was anxiously trying to compose myself as I stood face to face with Jorge’s lover. Even his voice had “drool factor”. It was deep and velvety, with a smooth French accent.
“May I come in?” I asked, I hesitated a bit. I didn’t want to frighten Jean Luc with my boldness, but what I really wanted to do was barge in anxiously. I felt a certain urgency in my need to speak with Jorge. “Actually, it is imperative that I come in...forgive me for my brashness, you must be Jean Luc. My name is Lane Jensen, I...”
“Who is it?” I could hear Jorge’s voice as he came around the corner. He stopped short when he saw me standing there in the foyer. He was standing there in a navy silk bathrobe, staring at me in shock.
“Lane? What are you doing here? It is late, we were getting ready to go to bed,” he cried, staring at me in shock.
“Jorge, I’m sorry to barge in on you at home like this, but I wanted to talk to you before Maurice did. He’s trying to to blackmail me. He told me he had incriminating footage of me with Ron, I’m afraid he might try something underhanded.”
“What have you done with Brannon, that Maurice has incriminating footage of? I told you to stay away from him,” boomed Jorge, who was suddenly enraged.
“I haven’t done anything with him, but Maurice seems to think that I want him and...”
“Listen to me Lane, Maurice Dubois has been working for me for ten years. I hardly believe that...”
“Please Jorge, just hear me out. I never saw any of the footage but I’m afraid I haven’t been hiding my attraction to Ron very well, and the other day when he almost kissed me...”
“You almost kissed him?” cried Jorge, his face was devoid of any color he was so shocked.
“It was a weak moment, I’m sorry, but Maurice has no right to try to force himself on me, and I think the cabbie was in on it too, and...” I felt as if I was ranting on, I was so nervous and shook up.
“Wait a minute...Maurice tried to force himself on you?” cried Jorge, staring at me intently.
“Yes! I wasn’t as inebriated as I let on to both of you, thank God for that. I might not have been able to defend myself against him, had I been as drunk as I let on,” I cried.
“Oh my God, I cannot believe it!” cried Jorge, thoroughly upset.
“Really Jorge, nothing has ever happened between Ron and I, Maurice was trying to make it seem like...”
“Yes, I understand...what did you have to do to get him to back off?” asked Jorge, he appeared to be thinking now.
“I had no choice but to use force,” I said, shrugging slightly.
“What kind of force?” asked Jorge.
“The man disgusts me, I tried to twist his nuts off,” I told Jorge, hiding my amusement as much as I could.
“Oh,” said Jorge, cringing distastefully. Jean Luc, let out a shout of laughter.
We were all startled when the doorbell rang. Jean Luc checked the security camera and announced that it was Maurice.
“What now?” whispered Jorge.
“I have an idea,” I told him.
In moments, Jorge was opening the front door for Maurice.
“Maurice, what are you doing here?” cried Jorge, when he saw him.
“I have some information for you, it’s something very important, I thought you should know. It’s about one of your cast members, Lane Jensen,” said Maurice, his tone was conspiratorial.
“Really? Does this information have anything to do with the fact that you tried to force yourself on my girlfriend when I simply asked you to get her a taxi cab home?” asked Jorge, eyeing him seriously.
“Wherever would you hear such a tale? The very idea is ludicrous!” cried Maurice.
“Oh, I don’t know Maurice. Maybe Lane told me herself tonight, when we were in bed. Didn’t you darling?” asked Jorge, as I walked around the corner into the foyer, wearing nothing but Jorge’s silk robe. I gave Maurice a coy wave as he stared at me in shock.
“This is crazy! I’m not buying this for a moment. I know you and Lane aren’t a couple, you’re gay, you have a partner!” cried Maurice.
“I’m sorry Mr. Dubois, but I have no idea what you are talking about,” said Jorge, taking Maurice by the arm and walking him toward the door.
“This is some sort of a scam, Lane is doing Brannon...I know it!” cried Maurice.
“By the way Maurice...you’re fired,” said Jorge, as he escorted him out the front door. I let out a sigh of relief when Jorge had finally closed the door behind Maurice. I couldn’t believe the nerve of that slime bucket, trying to blackmail me like that.
The next morning I was back on the ice with my team, minus one cameraman. It was actually pretty nice to be free and not have a camera in my face constantly. We were actually able to get a lot accomplished.
Neither Elena nor Ron seemed inclined to ask about Maurice’s absence, and I had no intention on telling them what had went down last night.
Jorge would have another camera man lined up soon enough. We were already working on our first two minute program. The program that we taped next Wednesday would be the first elimination round. I would be happy enough if my team wasn’t the first to be eliminated.
For this first round the only requirements for our program was that we incorporate one lift, and the costumes and the moves must interpret the music. The music theme for the week was “popular music of the 70’s”.
I’d had a hard time selecting
this week’s music. I wanted something we could have fun with, yet I didn’t want it to be too fast, or too slow, like a ballad. After listening to, what seemed like, thousands of music clips, I had finally decided on the song “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves”, by Cher.
Since my team was new to ice dance and pairs skating, I thought that giving them a song with a clear theme would make it much easier for them to interpret the music. Besides, the costumes and the music would be fun, or at least, I thought so. Elena was excited when she heard the music, and my ideas that went along with it. Ron, on the other hand, wasn’t quite as enthusiastic.
I frowned when he voiced his displeasure. “What don’t you like about it?” I asked. I was willing to compromise in any way possible, so that he wouldn’t feel uncomfortable.
“I don’t know, the whole thing just sounds kind of gay, that’s all I’m saying,” said Ron, shaking his head miserably.
“Well if I were a big strong football player like yourself, this whole show would sound gay to me, but it was you who signed up for this gig. Like it or not, you are now a figure skater. Now, do you want to do something outside of your comfort zone, or not?” I asked, staring him down determinedly.
He gave me a surprised look, then he started laughing.
“You’re pretty damn cute when you’re pissed,” he said, laughing.
“I’m not pissed, I’m just saying...”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m all yours, make me into a freakin gypsy,” he sighed, pirouetting around with one arm over his head.
The hardest part about this week’s program was that I needed to incorporate a lift of some sort into the program. It was the required element for this week in the competition, so we needed to include it in our program, or risk loosing points.
The issue was, Ron was not a strong skater, and he would have to support not only his own body weight, but Elena’s too, on his somewhat shaky skates and hold the position for several seconds.
Even if he could manage it, Elena had never done any kind of pairs skating, so trust was an issue. At some point she was going to have to be confident enough in Ron, to take both of her skates off the ice and allow Ron to completely support her body above the ice. At this point, Elena had no confidence in Ron’s skating ability, so getting her to try any type of a lift was going to be a hard sell on my part.
We spent quite a while working on other moves for our program, paired turns and other easy things that would help to build up Ron’s confidence, and Elena’s. Then I decided it would be a good idea to work with Ron exclusively for a while. Since Ron basically had no skating experience prior to this competition, I would have to make sure that his basic skating skills were strong before moving on to the harder things.
To make Ron a strong base for the lift, I needed to know what position he was most comfortable in. The male, as the base of the lift could assume many different positions, I just needed to find out what position would make Ron the strongest base for Elena.
I had Elena go to the other end of the rink to work on some spins. She had an extensive repertoire of spins and she was quite talented, I felt if we could capitalize on some of those spins in the future, it would be a gold mine!
I worked with Ron for quite a while, showing him all the different positions we could work on for the lift. The other good thing about this competition was the rules. Since we were working with inexperienced skaters it was silly to try and use official figure skating rules, so basically, the show’s rules were based on official rules, but really much more relaxed. In this competition we could choose to use actual pairs lifts which were more difficult or we could use ice dancing lifts.
Since ice dancing lifts were easier and there was a huge variety of them, I chose to use an ice dance lift for our first program. The best part about ice dancing lifts, was that not all of them were exactly lifts, as long as one skater suspended the other off the ice, it was considered a lift, that opened up a lot of possibilities, as far as I was concerned.
After working with Ron extensively that morning, he seemed to be quite stable doing a lunge in a straight line. I had been a pairs skater, so I was not well versed in lifts used in ice dance, but suddenly I had a fabulous idea. I called Elena over and told her what I wanted her to do, she just glared at me as if I were a moron and told me, “Nyet!”
“Elena, it will be so easy for you, Ron will be fine, he’s very stable in the lunge position,” I told her, but she just kept shaking her head determinedly. I sighed miserably, this was much harder than working with children. Children were always eager to please and usually, they didn’t even care if they fell occasionally.
I was aggravated, I knew they could do it! I guessed I would have to show her that Ron was going to be fine. My idea was to have Ron skating in a lunge position and have Elena skate facing him, place her left blade on top of his right skate then Elena would lean forward, Ron would support her waist with his arm, while she pulled her right leg up behind her head, in a full Beilman position.
I took them off the ice, so we could try it on the rubber mats that were right next to the ice. I got Ron into position, then I did it myself, to show her that it could be done. She was still shaking her head empathetically.
“He weel fall on me and keel me,” said Elena.
“He can do it,” I told her as I ushered them both back to the ice.
“Fine...you first,” said Elena, gesturing for me to try it on the ice with Ron.
I rolled my eyes, I was supposed to be the coach and choreographer, this was getting ridiculous!
I gave Ron a few, last minute instructions. Then the two of us began skating around to gain some speed. Ron had to have enough momentum to support his weight and mine without falling.
I spun around in front of Ron, so that I was skating backwards, he cautiously began to slide down into position, I carefully placed my left blade, on top of his right skate, then leaning forward onto his right arm, I slowly pulled my right leg up behind my head, holding it for 3 seconds, then I carefully came back down onto the ice. We were both a little bit shaky, but we did it! I was stunned when I heard a solitary person applauding us from the edge of the ice. Of course, it was Jorge.
“Once again I tell you, I picked the wrong person to do the actual skating. Would you and Elena like to switch roles?” asked Jorge, his voice was dripping with sarcasm.
“Maybe next time you should only hire skaters who have pairs experience,” I told him, raising my eyebrows at him.
“Step to it Miss Denkova, it’s your turn to try it,” said Jorge, clapping his hands to make his point. Elena frowned, then she took Ron by the hand and began skating with him.
Ron was very cautious and Elena seemed to be moving in slow motion, but they actually did it! Elena was too nervous to completely extend herself, but they did it well enough that I felt like it was a definite possibility.
I was bursting with pride as they skated back over to us, with a little bit of work the move was going to be stunning! I was excited.
“I can’t wait to see the entire program. I had my doubts at first, but I think this team may actually be a top contender. I’m very impressed,” said Jorge.
“Thank you,” I said, giving him a smile.
“I came to invite you all to a private screening of the show’s debut tonight at Spago,” said Jorge.
“Spago, like Wolfgang Puck’s Spago?” cried Ron, excitedly.
“The very one,” said Jorge, giving us a little nod.
“Yeah!” cried Elena, clapping her hands excitedly.
“Once again you’ll be arriving as a team, the media will all be there, so be on your best behavior. Check with wardrobe and Carmelita when you are done here, she’ll set you up for hair and makeup,” said Jorge.
I resisted rolling my eyes. I hated these big Hollywood events, I just wanted to put my jammies on and watch it at the condo, instead we had to make a big Hollywood night of it. Of course, it was part of my contract that I had to go to all these silly partie
s, but that didn’t mean that I had to like them.
CHAPTER 13
Early that evening I was back at the salon, having my hair and makeup done. Then I would be dressed in the black designer dress that the stylist had picked out for me and I would be off to yet another party.
I arrived at Spago with my team, completely overwhelmed to be amongst Hollywood’s “in crowd”. Elena and Ron both looked completely gorgeous and I had pretty much forced them to sit next to each other in the limo. The three of us posed for photos on the red carpet together, then, when we reached the door of the restaurant, Jorge took my arm possessively.
The whole affair wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated. In fact, I actually enjoyed myself. We had a wonderful dinner prepared by Wolfgang Puck and his staff, then we all got to watch the season premier there on the big screen. I had to giggle as I watched it, my team definitely looked the worst in their practice videos, and of course, Maurice had been capturing all my deep sighs and eye rolling as I tried, often without much success, to make a figure skating pair out of my seriously mismatched raw talent.
Laying Low In Hollywood Page 11